Jeff McDonald: Pop on the plane

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — It has been confirmed that the Spurs have indeed arrived in the Los Angeles area for the Western Conference semifinals.

Coach Gregg Popovich, after a night of travel troubles worse than anything that ever happened to Clark W. Griswold, met with reporters at the team hotel in Santa Monica on Tuesday afternoon.

Typically, this would be an opportunity for reporters to ask questions about the Spurs’ next opponent (ie, the Lakers). All we wanted to know about, however, was the night the Spurs spent on the tarmac at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Airport.

The Spurs couldn’t get off the ground after Monday night’s Game 7 victory in New Orleans, due to mechanical problem with the plane. They couldn’t find proper hotel accommodations in New Orleans, either, because a local convention had them all booked up.

So the Spurs had to spend the night on a grounded plane.

“I just told them we were having a sleepover,” Popovich said. “We got out pajamas for everyone.”

Few players actually slept. And there’s no word yet on what TNT talking heads Marv Albert and Reggie Miller, who were hitching a ride on the flight, thought about the whole situation.

After about seven hours, the charter company, Champion Air, was able to get a replacement plane in from Minneapolis. The Spurs finally left New Orleans around 7 a.m., and arrived in L.A. around 11, local time. Total travel time, including the sleepover: 11 hours.

The incident isn’t good news for Champion Air, which was set to go out of business by the end of the month anyway. Asked if the Spurs might consider other alternatives until then, Popovich chuckled and said, “We’d consider walking.”

All in all, Popovich seemed in fairly good spirits about the whole episode. At least, he said, the Spurs weren’t stranded in New Orleans after a Game 7 loss.

“If it had been a loss, there would have been fighting on the plane,” Popovich said. “We would have fought the people who are serving us. We’d have been fighting each other. We’d have been pointing fingers. There would have been deaths on that plane.”